Recent reviews by Ufnal

I love magic school games, but this one is barely a game. You click through pieces of uninspired, bland dialogue on small index cards, choosing options that don't seem to change much if anything at all. You collect spells and items for a minigame that, as you are explicitly told, changes nothing in the story - and that has an awful tutorial that for examples explains what various cards do only after it forces you to choose the cards you are going to play with. There's no lore to be explored, no interesting storylines and engaging characters, nothing. The music is nice albeit generic, but the little bits of voice acting only serve to irritate. The art is pretty nice, but that's it.

It's a tentative recommend, because there are some things wrong with this game. The interface doesn't always work right or intuitively (mixing different piles of mushrooms with different expiration dates to make a soup from them is something I still haven't managed despite having beaten the game twice, including on the hardest difficulty). The dialogue after a few playthroughs is 80% stuff you already know. The difficulty can change WILDLY due to RNG. The realism of some survival, crafting and cooking is... questionable (for example, unless you play on the hardest difficulty and turn off the indicators about incoming weather in the game options, you'll probably find a minor hand cut is harder to address than the famous Siberian weather that's supposed to be a constant, deathly threat).

And yet, I've spent over 30 hours in HWCT - because, despite those flaws, it's still a good resource management game. It's simple in its principles yet challenging in practice, the gameplay can vary wildly from one playthrough to another (try not finding any clay for a few days...) and at least some of the time there are alternate ways to address particular problems, as well as costs and needs that require careful balancing. What little story and prose there is - is good enough to keep me interested in what's going to happen, and it sometimes manages to convey a glimpse of the tragic situation our characters find themselves in (as well as the petty squabbles they concern themselves with even in the face of death - sadly, one of the most realistic elements of the game). The art is also quite good, I especially love how the eyes of the characters are depicted.

Overall, I wouldn't say it's a great or wonderful game, but it's a very good one. I got it on a great discount and I'm 100% satisfied with the value I got for the money - but even at full price, fans of the genre shouldn't be disappointed.

Far, far from perfect, but it's also far from unplayable as some reviews would have it. It feels different enough and fun enough that I'm giving it a thumbs up.

A fun, deceptively simple but quite rich game with interesting lore, tactical variety, nice aesthetics and low system requirements allowing you to run it even on a very basic laptop.

An absolutely incredible demo of a game that threatens to ruin my life. Interesting mechanics and strategies that do better at recreating the intricacies of professional MOBA than any game I've seen, cool style, great variety and replayability, and it sucks me in for hours and hours at a time (after I've finished this "Origin" I also finished the Steam Next demo which was twice as long and with more content - all in what, 2? 3? days). I can't wait for May!

I like this game very much for its unusual subject, some interesting and innovative gameplay, the way it presents the player with lore/information/facts and leaves them to interpret it and work things out. You aren't presented with the results of your efforts immediately, and you are forced to experience the same uncertainty that the doctor does regarding his methods and work. It's refreshing, challenging, thought-provoking, and also quite pleasant to the eye. I recommend it to anybody who likes this type of experiences.

That being said, I dislike a lot about the gameplay here. Oftentimes, you need to click one precise, small thing to progress and can be left clicking on everything in the vicinity in search of a way forward. The knowledge, observations, notes and instructions are often hidden from the player at the most crucial moments, leaving them hanging. There is very little clarity concenring important elements of the interface and gameplay - a small example that doesn't cout as a spoiler, I should think: why can I only leave the room to buy cigars maybe once in the entire game, if smoking cigars is to be a crucial element of managing Freud's mood? Many indicators and options in the interface are often quite uninformative and force you to take a guess as to what they are supposed to communicate - which I guess is thematic (and the interface sure is pretty), but in a game already full of guesswork and deduction, adding an additional layer of that even with the game-y elements of the display seems unnecesarily obtuse. I am looking forward to what this team releases next, but I hope they will produce something a bit less unwieldy. And longer, too!

A great bullet heaven game with very satisfying (albeit sometimes too hectic) gameplay, where you can really feel the power of your abilities and the danger of the bosses. Fun for meticulous build crafting, but for me even more fun as a podcast companion that helps me relax and soothes the ADHD enough to let my mind focus on what I'm listening to.

I came back to the game after many months (was it a year, even?) and I must say I am very happy with it now. It's a very good bullet heaven with an extremely rich upgrade system, very fun abilities, a nice visual style and a lot of the problems of the past resolved. I still occasionally get frustrated with the hitboxes, which is a pretty big thing for the genre, but other than that - very nice.

SUCH a good game. It has a story that combines fate, destiny and cosmic-level magics with lovable characters and small-scale, moving and relatable interactions. It forces you to make hard choices, lets you do and experience incredible things and allows you interesting choices while maintaining a main character with well-defined personality and relationships. The music is phenomenal, the art enchanting, the ending (at least the one I got) kicks ass.

My only gripe at first was with the main mechanic - making divination cards and conducting divinations. For quite some time, I was unsure of some of the mechanics and specifics behind it and was worrying about playing that part of the game "correctly". Having finished the game, I can only tell you this: that was an unfounded worry. Choose what you want to choose, what you feel is right, and don't be like me, worrying about whether the reading is "right". You'll thank me later.

A beautiful, moving, sad, terrifying, terrific story. The art, with a few exceptions, is great, the voice acting is wonderful, the story manages to go through multiple layers of meaning and multiple moments that turn everything you seem to know on its head. It is a horror story. It is, or at least can and should be, a love story.

If, like me, you normally don't really like fear-inducing media, do give it a try anyway - this is a game of some violence, great atmosphere and existential dread, but it's not about jumpscares, gore or scarring you without an emotional payback and catharsis of sorts.

I spoiled myself a little, but I managed to spare myself almost any reveals after chapter II and I recommend you try to do the same. If, like me, you suffer from obsessive guidechecking, there's a cryptic and extremely helpful flowchart in the guides section.